Maryland Gov. O'Malley to keynote NH Dems' big fund-raising dinner

MANCHESTER -- Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley will be the keynote speaker at the New Hampshire Democratic Party's annual Jefferson-Jackson dinner/fund-raiser on Nov. 16.

More than 100 tickets have been sold, the party said, "putting the 2013 Jefferson Jackson Dinner well on its way to a record crowd." The event will be held at the Radisson Hotel in Manchester.

O'Malley's visit to the first-in-the-nation primary state will likely attract national political media attention. The two-term governor and former Baltimore mayor has been weighing a presidential bid and has also been mentioned in political circles as possible vice presidential material.

In a New Hampshire poll of potential presidential candidates for 2016, released Wednesday by Public Policy Polling of North Carolina, O'Malley received less than 1 percent, far behind Hillary Clinton's 57 percent and Vice President Joe Biden's 12 percent.

But O'Malley is well-known to local Democratic activists and has been coming to New Hampshire for 30 years, initially as a campaign volunteer for former U.S. Sen Gary Hart's 1984 presidential campaign and most recently as a surrogate for Gov. Maggie Hassan and President Barack Obama last fall, when he was chairman of the Democratic Governor Association. He is now the DGA's finance chairman

He also spoke at the 2012 NHDP state convention in Manchester.

O'Malley's New Hampshire stop is part of an "aggressive schedule this fall to help elect Democratic governors around the country," the state Democratic Party said.

State Republican Party Chair Jennifer Horn called O'Malley a "liberal, income tax supporting extremist," and said that by having him speak at their dinner state Democrats showed they are "out of step with New Hampshire's fiscally responsible values."